Amazon changes worker approaches for downtime, cannabis
Amazon announced Tuesday that it supports the federal legalization of marijuana, and that the company is reviewing a controversial workplace policy that critics say has been used to keep employees working at a fast pace.
Amazon said the twin ads are meant to reaffirm the company's commitment to being an attractive employer.
In a blog post, Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumers, said the state's change in state laws on marijuana, the average Amazon (AMZN) would no longer include the substance in the company's pre-employment drug tests and that the drug will now treat itself as alcohol.
Clark said positions regulated by the US Department of Transportation will still include marijuana testing, adding that the company "will continue to perform impairment checks on the job and will test all drugs and alcohol after an incident."
Clark went on to say that Amazon supports the federal Marijuana Legalization Act, the Marijuana Reinvestment and Delisting Act. "We hope that other employers will join us, and that policy makers will move quickly to get this law passed."
Leave Policy Change
Amazon is also taking a closer look at its so-called Time off Task policy, which automatically tracks worker productivity by analyzing the time they spend on breaks. Critics have said that Time off Task contributes to a stressful work environment that treats workers as cogs in the machine rather than as people.
On Tuesday, Clark appeared to acknowledge the criticism even as he claimed the policy was easily "misunderstood".
"The primary objective of the time-out measure is to understand whether there are problems with the tools people use to be productive, and second only to identify underperforming employees," he wrote. “Starting today, we are now averaging a Time off Task over a longer period to ensure there are more signals and less noise – reinforcing the program's original goal, and focusing Time off Task conversations on how we can help. The goal is to refocus conversations on Situations where there are potentially real operational issues to resolve. We
believe this change will help ensure that the Time off Task policy is used in the manner intended.”
Writer: Ahmed Mohamed Abdel-Mobed